John Scripture Plan: Love One Another

Introducing the Scripture Plan for July! We’re continuing our series of studies in the New Testament epistles, and after studying the theme of Faith in Hebrews, then Hope in Thessalonians it seemed like love was the obvious theme to look at next – and where better than in John’s epistles? So, get ready to join us for the 1,2 and 3 John Scripture Plan!

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How does the Scripture Plan work?

A Scripture Plan involves having a passage, or passages, of the Bible to read each day. The passages are not usually particularly long, nor do they involve a lot of in-depth study. Instead, you follow the set-out readings of the plan for each day and have some time for personal reflection and response.

This Scripture Plan takes us through the three epistles (or letters) of the Apostle John in 30 days. I have chosen to make all my monthly plans for 30 days even though not all months are this length, so you can choose to do them at any time. The numbered daily readings are just a few verses, with a heading to help you focus on the theme for the day.

Use the form below to download the Love: 30 Days in the Epistles of John Scripture Plan.

You may choose to do a Verse Map or a Word Study or look into a particular theme or character. Check out my post on Bible Study for Beginners for more ideas or use my 5L Bible Study Method.

John’s Epistles

The Apostle John, who also wrote the Gospel of John and Revelations, was one of Jesus’ closest disciples. When he wrote the epistles (between 85-95AD) he was probably the only disciple still alive.

Unlike most of the New Testament epistles, John’s letters are not all addressed to specific churches or people. His first, and longest, letter is addressed to ‘my dear children’, referring to the believers in the Roman province of Asia, where John had ministered.

His second letter is addressed to ‘the lady chosen by God and to her children’, which most likely refers to a church and its members. And the third letter is addressed to an unknown Christian named Gaius.

So, with John’s letters, we do not need to find out any specific information about the recipients of the letters. Instead, we can get straight into focusing on the content.

John wrote to encourage the believers to continue in the faith he had shown them, and to warn them against false teachers.

The theme of love in John’s epistles

Much of John’s teaching in the letters are centred on the theme of love – both God’s love for us and our love for others.

Here are just some of the verses we will be studying.

1 John 3:1 “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! “

1 John 3:16 “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”

1 John 4:7 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”

1 John 4:10-11 “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.”

2 John 1:5-6 “ I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.”

3 John 1:11 “Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.”

Here’s a great quote from the Introduction to 1 2 and 3 John in the Message Translation: John’s epistles ‘provide wonderfully explicit direction in how [the relationship between God and love] works…In Jesus, God and love are linked accurately, intricately, and indissolubly.’

Guided Scripture Plan for Love: 30 Days in the Epistles of John

As well as the one-page reading plan, I have put together a Guided Scripture Plan to help you to dig deeper into the text. This includes a summary or highlighted verses for each day’s passage. I’ve chosen to use a fill-in-the-blanks method to help you focus on certain words and themes in the readings.

The readings and exercises for each day should not take too long – the aim is to focus your reading, not mentally task you! Click the link above or the image below to purchase your copy to download. You can get your copy of the Guided Scripture Plan for a discount price until the end of June, so check it out now and be ready to join the study at the beginning of July!

Memory Verse Printables

I’ve added something new to this month’s Guided Study Plan! John’s letters may be short but they are packed with some great verses so I have decided to choose a verse for each week of the study to memorize. At the back of the Guided Study are four verses to print out.